Art classes involve continuing adding tiny details until a deadline; however, CHS9 student Maya Dudhyala takes art as both a hobby and elective to express her interests, creativity and challenge herself.

What does art mean to you?

Art is a de-stressor for me. I think it’s important to wind down at the end of the day and since art is [at] seventh period for me [and] it’s one of the last classes I take, It’s really easy for me to calm down in art and it expresses my creativity as an individual.

What is an art form you value?

As a hobby I also do animation, I use FlipaClip and Animation Desk. Whenever it’s animation, a lot of other people are talking about [it] generally and it’s not really a smooth animation. But I don’t take it that way, there has to be a thing that moves every couple of seconds.

What is your current piece?

I’m making a folk art piece with three-point perspective buildings. It’s not entirely a folk art piece, but I incorporated it like the clouds have fold art [with] all of the different designs and patterns. It’s the type of fold art that incorporates flowy shapes. 

Who inspires you?

I watched a lot of YouTubers artists, like Sam Does Art and DrawingWiffWaffles because I think that it’s really cool that they made art a career. Those people have been inspirational because it’s like, “Oh, I can do art as a career, it’s always an option.”

What is your weakness in art?

My weakness is whenever you ask me to get more creative or deter from a reference image, it gets harder for me because I’m not too imaginative or it’s really hard for me to put what’s in my brain onto a piece of paper. If you have a reference, I can just take this and put it onto this paper, but I struggle more creatively. I do have ideas, [but] I’m not able to execute them properly which can be kind of frustrating. 

How do you prioritize?

I come home, do my homework and normally start to work on art after I finish everything because art is important to me, but I prioritize my grades and the other classes over art. So it’s art after everything else, but I made sure to get everything completed on time.

What is a fun personal project you have done?

There was a long weekend and I was extremely bored so I drew on my wall. I drew a Hershey’s bar, Snickers, Skittles, Godiva and a lollipop. I just wanted to take a break, [so] I drew candy and chocolate because I like them and they look aesthetic. I forgot to tell my mom at the beginning, but she was okay with it.

What is your favorite style of art?

I really like perspective art because first off I think it looks really cool, depending on the perspective. I like to keep things in an orderly way and make them make sense. It’s organized in ways that it connects art back to the actual world and because we have perspective in real life. 

What is one art moment you regret?

I was doing a piece with charcoal and I worked on a face at the bottom of the page for two hours. Then I went to work on another face to the top left-hand corner. I made sure to put a piece of paper [under hand to protect the drawing], but because I moved around a lot while doing art it still ended up smuggeding. All the work I put in was gone.

How did you become interested in art?

I used to make drawings for my preschool teacher and I used to hand them to her every day. The first two or three times she was happy, but then she was annoyed; [however,] she was really nice and encouraging. Also in elementary school I had Ms. Kristin Huckle as an art teacher and she told me to enter contests and [other events] for school. So honestly [they are] partly the reason I’m into art right now. 

What words of advice would you give to future artists?

If you want to get good at art, you have to practice. That sounds really cliche, but you can’t expect anything without trying [and] don’t give up. Also don’t take art as more of a stressful thing, instead something you can do in your free time and de-stress.

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